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Startup Mentoring 15 Top Tips for Entrepreneurs
Startup Mentoring understand there are so many things to remember when it comes to start ups, yet it’s impossible to be across them all. In business, it’s inevitable that many lessons are learnt along the entrepreneurial journey, that’s why having a support network of people who have ‘been there, done that’ is invaluable.
At Startup Mentoring our team of experts can help you jump the hurdles of business with ease. And to help you start off on the right foot, here are the top 15 things you need to know when starting a business!
1. Trust your gut instincts, (but do not ignore the facts): Being successful in business is often a mix of facts & instinct. So while it’s important to be across facts & stats, it’s equally important to develop a gut instinct that you can trust. Quite often this develops over time, with experience.
2. Learn how to identify market opportunities: Do your research so you can identify trends and know where money is being spent. Speak to 30-50 potential customers, before you invest money, to help you identify any potentially profitable market opportunities.
3. Be a learning machine: The entrepreneurial journey is a never ending learning process. Develop insights into your industry and competitors so you know how to best differentiate yourself among the pack.
4. Business plans are over rated: Have a vision and follow it and instead spend that time finding your ideal and most profitable customers.
5. Money is important BUT it’s not the only thing that matters: Know your values and core purpose. As the old adage goes ‘if you do something that you love, and make money from it then it will never be work”. Knowing your “why” will definitely keep you going through tough times.
6. Dream big and aim high: Aim to be the best (top 20%) in your field, globally; do it well enough and the money will come.
7.Find and learn from your customers: Ask potential customers what they need, collect some customer insights, develop your solution, acquire feedback, refine and so on until you land on a solution they value.
8. Be prepared to pivot and change your idea: (or even throw it away if you have to), until you start making sales. It’s at this point you have the beginnings of a business model.
9. Learn how to build a competitive advantage: Do something that’s rare, unique and hard to replicate. This will give you an edge in your market.
10. Learn how to sell: If you can’t sell you will never succeed, as initial sales are built on trust and likeability. People will generally only buy off you if they like and trust you.
11. Understand your numbers: Focus on developing your costings, price points and market positioning. Focus on your profit margins and don’t discount, as price wars are seldom won over the long term.
12. Work out how much it will cost to acquire a customer: Sometimes the cost of getting a customer exceeds the value that you give them. So understand how to get a customer, how long it will take and how much it will cost.
13 .Develop your team: Learn how to build your team as you go along, share ideas with people (but don’t give away too much) and keep networking for potential talent.
14. Be prepared to fail: Entrepreneurship can be a tough game of trial and error, but if you don’t try, you will never succeed. The test of a successful entrepreneur is their ability to bounce back (resilience) many times.
15. Continually develop yourself personally: Don’t over or underestimate yourself. A mentor or business coach who has experienced the blood, sweat and tears of a start up is an invaluable resource and sounding board for you.
As you can see there is a bit to remember when it comes to start ups! That’s why the importance of a mentor and supportive network can never be underestimated as they greatly increase your chance of long-term success.
Startup Mentoring
As Oprah Winfrey once said
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. Life is already filled with enough people who want to bring you down.”
So the question is who will you surround yourself with?
At StartUp Mentoring our friendly team of mentors have the expertise, knowledge and ability to help you along your entrepreneurial path. We’ve “been there, done that”, and are here waiting to help take you higher and make the most of your start up.
To find out more about how StartUp Mentoring can help you, contact us today.
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Starting a business checklist
Starting your business checklist
Are you new to business? To help you get started, the Australian Government has developed a Starting your business checklist covering many of the basic issues you need to consider.
The checklist contains a series of questions to guide you through the various stages of your business, including before you start, when you start, when you buy and when you run your business.
- Do you know where to find advice and support?
- Do you know when your business is a hobby?
- Do you know what events, networks and seminars are happening near you?
- Have you started planning for your business?
- Have you written your business planand marketing plan?
- Have you considered your other plans such as a social media plan, export or import plan, succession plan and emergency response?
- Do you know how to obtain finance and accounting?
- Do you know which business structure suits your business?
- Have you considered starting as an independent contractor?
When you start a business
- Have you registered your ABN?
- Have you registered for GST and/or other business registrations and licences?
- Have you registered your business name?
- Do you have adequate protection for your ideas?
- Have you considered running a home based business?
- Do you understand your taxation obligations?
- Do you understand your legal requirements?
- Are you aware of standards and codes of practice?
- Have you set up a basic bookkeeping system?
- Have you arranged insurance?
- Do you know how to employ people?
- Have you considered applying for grants or financial assistance?
- Have you considered doing business online?
- Have you thought in detail about your goods and services?
When you buy a business
- Have you considered buying an established business?
- Have you considered buying a franchise?
Running your business
- Do you have a good understanding of your customers?
- Do you know your ongoing employer obligations?
- Do you understand your workplace health and safety obligations?
- Have you thought about importing or exporting goods or services?
- Can your business benefit from applying for tenders and contracts?
Article first appeared on :
www.business.gov.au
7 ways a Mentor can help you succeed
Here are seven reasons having a mentor is important.
1. Gain experience not shared in books.
Experience is a very expensive asset — yet it’s crucial to business success. There’s only so much about a person’s experience you can gain from books. It’s an unstated truth that most authors do not feel comfortable revealing everything about themselves in books. Some personal experiences may be too intimate to be shared, yet how they dealt with it can help an inexperienced entrepreneur’s career.
Mentorship is one guaranteed way to gain experience from others.
2. You’re more likely to succeed with a mentor.
Research and surveys prove that having a mentor is important to success. In a 2013 executive coaching survey, 80 percent of CEOs said they received some form of mentorship. In another research by Sage, 93 percent of startups admit that mentorship is instrumental to success.
Your chances of success in life and in business can be amplified by having the right mentor. The valuable connections, timely advice, occasional checks — together with the spiritual and moral guidance you will gain from having a mentor — will literarily leapfrog you to success.
3. Network opportunities.
Aside the fact that investors trust startups who are recommended by their friends, a successful mentor has an unlimited network of people who can benefit your career. Since they are already invested in your success, it only makes sense for them to let you tap into their network of people when the need arises.
This is an opportunity you cannot tap into if you do not have a mentor.
4. A mentor gives you reassurance.
It has been proven by research that a quality mentorship has a powerful positive effect on young entrepreneurs. Having someone who practically guides you and shares your worries with you — often placating your fears with their years of experience — keeps you reassured that you’ll be successful.
Self-confidence is very important to success as entrepreneurs. A 2014 Telegraph report revealed that having a high self-confidence contributes significantly to career success — more so than talent and competence. Mentors have the capacity to help young founders tap into their self-confidence and see every challenge as an opportunity.
5. A mentor will help you stay in business longer.
When you imagine the number of businesses that fail, you’d wish a lot of business owners had mentors. According to SBA, 30 percent of new businesses may not survive past the first 24 months, and 50 percent of those may not make it past five years. However, 70 percent of mentored businesses survive longer than 5 years.
6. A mentor will help you develop stronger EQ.
Does maturity bring about a higher EQ in entrepreneurs? Emotional intelligence is crucial to entrepreneurial success. When a young entrepreneur has a more mature and successful mentor who advises them, they are likely to have greater control over their emotions.
We all know that a quick way to make a business fail is to mix it with emotions or make crucial decisions based on emotional feelings. Situations like this can be curbed as mentors will help show you how to react in given instances.
A story on Business Insider reveals how Schmidt worked with then inexperienced Page to manage the affairs of running a fledgling startup. An inexperienced CEO often makes decisions based on emotions, but one with a mentor like Schmidt is able to overcome critical hurdles by making smart decisive judgments.
7. Encouragement.
Enduring the consequences of failure on your own can set you back and impact your productivity. In hard times, having a mentor will help you keep your head high. Young entrepreneurs often deal with depression when they are unable to meet their goals and expectations. The impact of depression on entrepreneurs is often underreported. But entrepreneurs without mentors bear the brunt the most.
A mentor who has experienced the highs and lows of running a business is in the perfect position to give positive and soothing words of advice to you when things refuse to go your way. And not only do they have the right words to share, they would also have ideas to help you navigate your way to success.
This article first appeared on www.entrepreneur.com